Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (9 page)

JANUARY 15

1870
T
HOMAS
N
AST CREATES
a lasting symbol when he depicts the Democratic Party as a donkey in “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” for
Harper’s Weekly.

COVERING YOUR ASS

1.
In what play does a character appropriately named Bottom get an ass’s head?

2.
What movie ends by introducing a litter of five “dronkeys”?

3.
What holy day celebrates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey?

4.
What is a female donkey called?

5.
In what “Kounty” were the antics on
Hee Haw
set?

1919
I
N
B
OSTON, A TWO-MILLION-GALLON TANK
explodes without warning, causing the Great Molasses Flood. Buildings are leveled and twenty-one people killed by a thirty-foot wall of delicious goo.

SUGAR SUGAR

A trivia quiz that should satisfy your sweet tooth.

1.
Whose unusual first name is derived from an Italian musical term for “with sweetness”?

2.
What is Charlie’s last name in Roald Dahl’s
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
?

3.
What stadium hosted college football’s Sugar Bowl from 1975 to 2005?

4.
What Hershey’s candy is so named because the original manufacturing process couldn’t produce the perfectly round candies the company wanted?

5.
At what infamous concert did the Rolling Stones first play their eventual number one hit “Brown Sugar”?

6.
Strawberry, lemon, or banana—until a World War II shortage caused a change to vanilla, what was the original flavor of the cream in Twinkies?

7.
What organ produces insulin and glucagon, the hormones that regulate blood sugar?

8.
What is “the sweet science,” according to A. J. Liebling, who popularized the term?

9.
What’s the name of the head elf in charge of baking Keebler cookies?

10.
What classic Disney song was inspired by lyricist Robert Sherman’s five-year-old son receiving the Sabin polio vaccine at school?

1986
HBO
AND
C
INEMAX
begin scrambling their programming. Millions of dish owners either buy a decoder or learn to recognize nudity in doubled purply-green form.

SCRAMBLED TV

Rearrange these phrases to spell out appropriate TV show titles.

Easy

1.
Slow elimination—what a bore

2.
A pioneer hut: heroes till it

3.
City life

4.
Oho! Must jest!

5.
No, a mighty bad NFL tool

Harder

1.
Next-day ethics

2.
Do-re-mi can ail

3.
We are devious she-pets

4.
Cue holy agent band

5.
Plot norm: emaciated sex

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Agony mastery

2.
Pathetic preen

3.
My rent: so cheap

4.
Sphere intro

5.
Lean girls chase

JANUARY 16

1895
A
CACHE OF BURIED WEAPONS
is discovered in the gardens of Queen Liliuokalani’s palace in Hawaii, and though she denies any involvement in the attempted coup, she is forced to abdicate and placed under house arrest for years. According to her own account, it is during her imprisonment that she writes the famous song “Aloha Oe.”

ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE

Prove you’re trivia royalty with this queenly quiz.

1.
In 1893, who became the first woman ever to appear on a U.S. postage stamp?

2.
What famous wax sculptor made the death mask of Marie Antoinette?

3.
Ten of the sixteen countries of which Queen Elizabeth II is head of state are found in what continent?

4.
Who are Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee?

5.
What is a young bee fed to ensure that it develops into a queen?

6.
Who is the only Zanzibari in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

7.
What lagoon south of Queens, New York, is named for a local Indian tribe and has nothing to do with the Caribbean?

8.
In 1973, who left her husband, producer Robert Evans, to marry her costar Steve McQueen?

9.
What fictional character married his wife, Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles, during the sack of Rome in a.d. 450?

10.
Currently, only the queens of Spain and Belgium and the grand duchess of Luxembourg hold the privilege of wearing white when they visit whom?

1938
B
ENNY
G
OODMAN BRINGS JAZZ
to Carnegie Hall, in what is now considered the most important single concert in jazz history. The performance also produces
The Famous
1938
Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert,
the music industry’s first-ever double LP.

NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT

What artists were responsible for these double albums?

Easy

1.
Electric Ladyland

2.
Exile on Main Street

3.
Back to Basics

4.
Bitches Brew

5.
Sign ‘o’ the Times

Harder

1.
The Fragile

2.
Wheels of Fire

3.
Self Portrait

4.
In Your Honor

5.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Being There

2.
Daydream Nation

3.
English Settlement

4.
Tinsel Town Rebellion

5.
Tales from Topographic Oceans

1972
D
AVID
S
EVILLE,
creator of the Chipmunks, dies in Beverly Hills. “Seville” is really Ross Bagdasarian, an Armenian-American songwriter from Fresno.

A SHOT IN THE ARM(ENIAN)

1.
What Michigan pathologist invented the Thanatron and the Mercitron?

2.
What placekicker’s famous “gaffe” kept Miami from shutting out the Redskins in Super Bowl VII?

3.
Who spoke his native Armenian, not Kazakh, while playing Azamat in the
Borat
film?

4.
What
Law & Order: CI
regular wrote and starred in the play
Talk Radio
?

5.
Who defeated Tom Bradley twice in California gubernatorial elections?